General. General Chernaieff, recently appointed to the
office, had not yet arrived from Petersburg, but was
represented meanwhile by General A. K. Abramoff,
Governor of the province of Ferghana. The chief
administration of Turkistan being centred in Tashkend,
the vice-regal palace, as might be supposed, is the
finest house in the town. It is surrounded by gardens,
with fountains and pavilions, used for fetes, agricultural
exhibitions, etc., in summer, whilst the large saloon
serves in winter for social and philanthropic gatherings,
such as meetings of the Red Cross and other
societies. General Abramoff, however, at the time of
my visit was staying in the Governor-General’s summer
villa, in the outskirts of the town-^a charming residence
buried amongst trees, that, in Turkistan, would be considered
fine. Thither we drove, and were ushered into
the study of the General, who impressed me favourably
by his unassuming dignity and apparent thoroughness.
Having presented the letter I received from General
Chernaieff at Petersburg, my first care was to arrange
for the distribution of such Scriptures as I had for the
sellers, 8; tailors, 55; bootmakers, 3 7 ; painters, 1 1 ; plasterers, 2;
turner, 1 ; maker of French flooring', 1; wheelwrights and coach builders,
5 ; market gardeners and florists, 16; bakers, 37 ; embroiderers in gold
and silver, 3; watchmakers, 3 ; fishermen, 5 ; music-sellers (principally
Jews), mi] hawkers of bread and cakes, 6 ; bath proprietors, 5 ;
armourers, 3 ; bricklayers, 18; hatters and hosiers, 2 ; upholsterer, 1 ;
butchers, 3 ; goldsmiths, 4 ; tiler, 1; sawyers, 3 ; translators, 5; glazier,
1 ; keepers of licensed houses (all Mussulmans, the women included),
18 ; prostitutes, 66 (including those married and living in the
licensed houses, with husbands, brothers, fathers, children, e tc.); servants
(including officers’ orderlies), 314 ; coachmen, 32 ; female cooks,
h i ; male cooks, 4 1 ; grooms,16; nurses, 7 1 ; parlour-maids,25 ; dressmakers,
31, and laundresses, 61.
According to ages as follows Less than 10 years of age, 880 ; from
10 to 15, 230; from 15 to 20, 461 ; from 20 to 30, 1,588 ; from 30 to
40, 1,156; from 40 to 50, 396; from 50 to 60, 100 ; from 60 to 70, 24;
and more than 70, 17.
prisons, hospitals, and public institutions throughout
Turkistan. I inquired how many would be needed for
Ferghana, and was at once struck with the minute
acquaintance his Excellency appeared to possess concerning
his own province. “ In the prison at Khokand,”
said he, “ there are 6 rooms; in Marghellan, 16 ; in
Namangan, 8; Andijan, 4, and Osh, 3; whilst the
rooms in the hospitals are, Marghellan, 20 ; Khokand,
10; Andijan, 6 ; Namangan, 5; and Osh, 5 ; or you
may send 100 in all, in about equal proportions of
Russian and Tatar.” These his Excellency undertook
to distribute as I wished, so that there should be at all
times some portion of Holy Scripture within reach of
every prisoner and patient in Ferghana, and he kindly
undertook also to see the same arrangement carried out
for the Syr-daria province.* By a fortunate coincidence
it happened that General Ivanoff, Governor of the
Zarafshan district, was staying at Tashkend, and paying
a visit to the Governor-General at the same moment
as myself. He therefore heard my request to General
Abramoff, and gladly accepted a similar offer of books
for his own province. There were 15 rooms in the
prisons, and 25 in the hospitals, he said, of Samarkand,
4 in the prisons and 6 in the hospitals of Katte-Kurgan,
and 2 each in the prison and hospital of Penjakend.
“ About 40 books,” he added, “ might be sent in Russian,
5 in Tatar, 10 in Persian, and 2 or 3 in Hebrew.”
Thus at a stroke I had arranged for all the prisons and
hospitals of Turkistan, except the mere handful that
would be required for the province of the Amu-daria.
* I subsequently learned that in the Syr-daria oblast the prisons and
hospitals were situated at Aulie-ata, Chimkent, Tashkend, Khojend,
Ura-Tiube, Jizakh, Turkistan, Perovsk, and Kazalinsk ; and that I
might reckon on an average four rooms to each, except Tashkend, and
that had fifty.